On this page, we are going to show you all the things you need to know about the basic saying "On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre". Including a complete definition of what it mean and how to use it in a dialogue with an audio example. Along with the useful things we sprinkled like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonyms and more!
Translation : You have to make decisions
Literal meaning : You can't have the butter and the money from the butter
Register : Informal - Basic
Slow
Normal
IPA : / ɔ̃ nə pø pa avwaʁ lə bœʁ e laʁʒɑ̃ dy bœʁ /
It literally means:
This French expression became common during the 20th century. It means we shouldn't want to win everything on all levels with nothing in return.
The common sense is that we cannot honestly sell the butter we have just made, keep the money, but also keep the butter, in order to sell it again and again.
The English language has a very similar proverb: "You can't have your cake and eat it too".
When someone is too greedy and wants everything with no compensation, you can use this proverb as a reminder to make this person realize he/she needs to make a compromise. Use "On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre".
You will find similar proverbs in the "Synonyms" section below, but they are much less common than this one.
There is also a dirty variation of this proverb: "On ne peut pas avoir le beurre, l'argent du beurre et le cul de la crémière." which literally means: "We can't have the butter, the money from the butter and the dairy girl's ass"
Dialogue
J'hésite entre faire la fête ou me reposer
I hesitate between partying or resting
On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et...
You can't have the butter and...
... l'argent du beurre. Je sais !
... the money from the butter. I know!
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